KCRW Premiere: Misun — “Travel With Me”

With their infectious hooks that’ll have you singing along by the second chorus on your first listen, Misun are an easy band to fall in love with. Washington D.C. trio quartet have been releasing a consistently great stream of tracks for free on their Soundcloud page for the past year and a half.

Their “Summer Bootlegs“ album was in heavy rotation for me on the air and at home all summer long and the moombahton-inflected single “Goodbye Sasha” has been getting a ton of play on my show in recent weeks.

As a listener and fan of the group, one of the things I find most thrilling about Misun’s body of work is that you never really know what to expect when you push play on one of their tracks for the first time.

It’s probably going to be catchy and you’ll end up being aurally seduced by the soulfully smoky voice of vocalist (and band namesake) Misun Wojcik, but it could be over a dance beat, guitar-driven rock track, or hip hop instrumental — you just never know.

The band’s latest offering, “Travel With Me”, is consistent with their m.o. of being predictably unpredictable and finds the Misun’s sound branching out into even more territory.

You’ll hear pieces of Brazilian baile funk, Caribbean steel drums and a little Asian seasoning added midway through the track for extra flavoring. And you know what? This fusion of transcontinental elements somehow totally makes sense when you hear it all melded together and we’re thrilled to offer the premiere of this song below.

Incredibly, by some quirk of the universe, up to this point Misun has never put out anything in physical form; next month that will be remedied as Misun will release their debut 7″ on B3SCI Records. They also have a local show February 18 at the Bootleg.